The cast of the upcoming DC Comics movie Birds of Prey continues to take shape. Margot Robbie is reprising her Suicide Squad role as Harley Quinn while Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Jurnee Smollett-Bell are joining the DC Extended Universe as Huntress and Black Canary respectively. Meanwhile, Ewan McGregor is taking the role of the villain Black Mask, and now we have word he’ll be working with another recurring bad guy from DC Comics.

Chris Messina is best known for his series regular role on The Mindy Project and a recent turn in the HBO limited series Sharp Objects, but he’s also had quite an eclectic career starring in a variety of indie and arthouse films over the years. Now he’s heading into comic book blockbuster territory by taking the role of Batman villain Victor Zsasz. Read More »

HBO adapts Gillian Flynn‘s Sharp Objects into a haunting, brilliantly constructed Southern Gothic miniseries. Director Jean-Marc Vallée deftly blends past and present, telling a hypnotic, engrossing story about a damaged woman who can’t escape her emotional and physical scars. At the center of it all is Amy Adams, giving one of the best performances of her already stellar career. Mild spoilers follow.

Not all good actors are meant to play leads in romantic comedies. You often need a certain kind of charm to pull it off. Some actors have the natural charisma and vulnerability that’s right for the genre, and Chris Messina is one of those actors. Messina is hilarious, goofy, and always real as Danny Castellano in The Mindy Project. He’s now starring alongside Abigail Spencer (Timeless) in another slightly dark and somewhat quirky romantic comedy coming out next month.

Not too long ago, we learned that Ben Affleck‘s long-awaited adaptation of Dennis Lehane‘s novel Live By Night may get an awards-qualifying release late this year before going wide in January. Now that appears to have been confirmed with the first trailer for the 1920s crime thriller making its way online. This looks like it has the potential to be Ben Affleck’s best movie yet.

David Gordon Green is back this year with Manglehorn, a bittersweet drama about a cranky and lonely dude who starts to realize that maybe he doesn’t have to be so cranky and lonely anymore. Al Pacino plays the title character. Watch the Manglehorn US trailer after the jump. Read More »

A family quietly disintegrates when a stay at home dad (Chris Messina, who also directs) decides to take a break, leaving his workaholic wife (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) to keep her son’s development on track, and deal with her father (Don Johnson) as she tries to move forward with her own personal life. Winstead and Johnson won raves for their work when the film premiered at Tribeca last year, and Alex of Venice does look like it has something all its own, based on this footage. Derek Luke, Katie Nehra, and Skylar Gaertner co-star in the film; watch the Alex of Venice trailer here.

Gia Coppola‘s debut film Palo Alto premiered at the 2013 Telluride Film Festival and David Ehrlich called it “one of the best movies ever made about high school life in America”. I tend to disagree with Ehrlich most of the time, but even Todd McCarthy calls it “the best feature film directed by someone named Coppola in a number of years.” The filmmaker, cast (specifically Emma Roberts & James Franco), style and setting definitely have me excited to see this film. The movie is a dark drama that follows a group of teenagers whom, of course, have “a penchant for finding trouble.” Watch the second Palo Alto movie trailer embedded after the jump.

As James Franco prepares to debut his latest directorial effort, Child of God, at Venice and Toronto, another of his movies is on its way to a Telluride premiere. Palo Alto wasn’t helmed by Franco, but it was based on his short story collection and stars Franco in a key role.

Instead, it’s Gia Coppola (granddaughter of Francis Ford and niece of Sofia and Roman) who directed this drama, which follows several interconnected plotlines in the suburban town of its title. Emma Roberts leads the cast as a teenager who gets romantically involved with her soccer coach (Franco), while Jack Kilmer (son of Val) and Nat Wolff play a pair of troubled kids. Watch the first trailer after the jump.

American Psycho, Big Love, and American Horror Story actor Matt Ross makes his feature writing and directing debut with 28 Hotel Rooms, which played Sundance this year to considerable acclaim and is soon opening via Oscilloscope. The film follows the tumultuous courtship of a couple played by Chris Messina (Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Away We Go) and Marin Ireland (Homeland), and this first trailer for the movie is an occasionally raw illustration of the life they try to lead together. It is quiet, rough, and slightly not safe for work (thanks to a bit of sex) but also fairly compelling. Read More »